Siemens has pulled out of the bidding for a contract to make rolling stock for
Crossrail, improving the chances for UK group Bombardier

The German engineering giant said it will not proceed with the procurement process for the new line linking east and west London because it is busy with other projects, such as building trains for Thameslink. This leaves Bombardier, Hitachi and Spanish group CAF in the bidding.

Siemens said on Friday it no longer had the capacity to deliver the 600 carriages required for the new line.

“Crossrail is a very large project and, since first undertaking our initial assessment of capacity and deliverability, Siemens has won multiple additional orders,” the German group said. However, the group will still provide other equipment for Crossrail, which is currently Europe’s largest infrastructure project. These include signalling and control systems.

Bombardier controversially missed out on the £1.6bn contract for 1,141 new carriages for Thameslink trains last year, which was won by Siemens.

Bombardier operates Britain’s last remaining rolling stock manufacturing site and is one of the major employers in Derby.

Last year, the Government said that its hands had been tied by EU procurement rules, after the Thameslink contract was provisionally awarded to Siemens and it became embroiled in a “jobs for British workers” row. Confirmation that Siemens had definitively won the deal came in June.

The Crossrail contract is more positive news for Bombardier’s workers, after the company unveiled a €327m (£282m) contract last week to deliver 60 commuter trains for the German railway system.